Strength Doesn't Lie in Numbers
by The Original Horcrux
Summary: While on the Run, Dean Thomas meets another just like him and they become better friends than Dean immedately thinks. **Written for alohamora080's "True Colours" Competition**


**I couldn't resist :) I had to do another entry for the "True Colours" Comp :) This time the Character was Dean and my Colour was Orange, which symbolises endurance, strength and/or perseverance. Sit back, relax and most importantly enjoy! **

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Strength Doesn't Lie in Numbers

Dean drew his wand hastily as he heard someone stumbling through the forest. He was alone he had been ever since he'd run away from home earlier that month to avoid being prosecuted for being a muggle born.

Wand at the ready, he sidestepped silently behind a tree as a middle-aged man burst into the clearing, clutching a bleeding arm. Despite this, Dean didn't let down his guard, he'd learnt not to feel too sorry for people during his time on the run, he'd almost been caught by death eaters while helping an old man who claimed to be lame across the street.

The man collapsed on the forest floor, gasping for breath and fumbling for something in his pants, which looked like they were formal once. Dean froze as he saw what the man had pulled out. It was a wand. Dean immediately went on red alert, this man was a wizard, which meant that Dean was in danger, although he didn't think that a death eater would be on the run with tatty pants that looked like they were once formal and a bleeding shoulder, but maybe that's what the death eaters wanted him to think.

The man touched the wand to his bleeding shoulder, muttering some words under his breath before the cut closed up before Dean's eyes.

"Who are you?" Dean heard someone ask and he stepped involuntarily out from behind the tree, pointing his wand at the man. That was when he realised, he had spoken, he had _voluntarily_ stepped out from behind the tree and now he was pointing his wand at the man.

He smiled, wheezing and held both of his hands up in the air.

"Don't worry," He said "I'm not going to hurt you."

"How am I supposed to know that?" Dean said, his eyes not leaving the man.

"I'm Ted Tonks. Dora's father" the man said and Dean thought _who's Dora?_ "You know her I trust? Nymphadora Tonks?"

_Oh_ thought Dean _**Tonks**__Tonks._

"Prove it" Dean found himself saying in a voice that he didn't deem familiar to his own. All of the days of isolation were finally taking their toll, and Dean was in full on-the-run mode, he didn't trust anyone.

Ted put his hand back into his pocket and pulled out a picture.

"My Family" he said, handing it to Dean. Dean looked at it; it had obviously been taken at a celebration as a woman who was _definitely_ Tonks kissed her father's cheek as her mother smiled in the background from behind a food laden table. One look at the man told Dean that he was indeed Tonks' father, but that didn't mean he was Ted Tonks.

"How do I know you're not using polyjuice potion?" Dean said, his eyes narrowing as he passed the picture back to Ted.

"Wait me out" Ted said with a shrug.

"Maybe I will" Dean said, pulling out his wand and pointing it at a spot on the ground and shot flames at it, making an instant fire. "Looks like we're camped here for the night"

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"Are you convinced yet? That I'm not an imposter" Ted asked several hours later as Dean roasted some birds that he'd stunned earlier over the fire.

"Yeah" Dean mumbled "I still don't trust you though."

"Well if it helps I don't trust you either." Ted responded, accepting the swallow that Dean passed him. Dean was silent as he skinned the second bird, all the while not taking his eyes off Ted. Ted sighed "I don't blame you, kid. If I was in your position then I wouldn't trust me either."

"I've learnt from my mistakes" Dean said, still skinning the bird expertly while looking at Ted. "I'm not making them again."

"You're a smart kid." Ted complimented "What's your name?"

"Dean" Dean muttered hesitantly, still not sure he should trust Ted.

"You on the run from the muggle born law then?" He asked in hushed tones. Dean nodded slowly. "Well, we're in the same boat." Ted said through a mouthful of bird.

"You're a muggle born too?" Dean asked

"Yeah" Ted replied

"Are there many like us?" Dean asked softly, voicing the question that he had wanted to ask ever since he'd laid eyes on Ted. He wanted to know if other muggle borns had been smart enough to get away from the law and go into hiding.

"A few" said Ted, taking another bite of swallow as Dean put his on the fire "Most turned themselves in, scared of the ministry see. But there are a few like us, waiting out here just biding our time until the ministry falls, because it _will_ fall one way or another."

"You think?" Dean asked. Ted leaned in closer to him to whisper into his ear.

"I'll tell you a little secret Dean. Harry Potter is out there, with Ron and Hermione, now try and tell me that the ministry won't fall" Ted nodded knowingly, tapping the side of his nose. And suddenly Dean felt that all the hardships of the past few weeks were for something other than keeping himself alive. He'd be willing to endure a year worth of pain if he knew that he was helping Harry, and that's exactly what he planned on doing.

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"I don't trust the goblins" Dean muttered to Ted months later as they lay under the stars on a riverbank in wales.

"Neither, but you know what they say, strength lies in numbers." Ted replied.

"I guess" Dean said, stretching out on a rock adjacent and looking up at the starry sky.

"They say that Voldemort is getting stronger." Dean said grimly.

"Don't say the name Dean" Ted said, shuddering.

"Fear of the name only increases fear of the thing itself." Dean said, repeating the words he'd heard Hermione say many times at Hogwarts.

"You're sure right about that Mr. Thomas" said a voice from behind him. Dean wheeled around to see none other than Frenrir Greyback and a gang of snatchers. He scrambled backwards off the rock as Ted yelled to raise the alarm.

"Get them" Greyback said and the Snatchers rushed forward, yelling manically. Dean and Ted drew their wands as they duelled the snatchers back to back.

"Dean!" Ted yelled over the ruckus that the snatchers were making

"What?" Dean replied.

"What I told you before? That strength lies in numbers? Forget that! Strength doesn't lie in numbers!"

"Then what does it lie in?" Dean said, blocking a spell from a snatcher.

"It lies in love and whatever goddamned hope you have left!" Ted yelled as a flash of green light hit him square in the chest and he crumpled to the ground, Dead.

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**AN: Oh, Ted died… sad face.**

**Well, I hope you enjoyed!**

**Please review so I know what you thought. :)**

**~The Original Horcrux~**


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